Social Media Specialist? Analyst? or What?

Jay Deragon, a columnist for Relationship-Economy in an article called What's A "Certified Social Media Specialist?", stated " If you haven’t noticed it seems that everyone is pushing out “messages” saying they are a social media expert or know more than anyone else about social media. The reality is that social technology is changing so fast that to be “certified” or self labeled as a “specialist or expert” is not relative or valuable and reflects a lack of wisdom." Over the past few years terms like social media specialist, social media analyst, or social media consultant have popped up across businesses' public relations departments. So it begs the question what the is this position do and even mean to businesses? 

Fab, Tech, and Media Blog

The general idea or conscience is a social media specialist is a "individuals who are specialists in creating and managing social media strategies and accounts often have moved sideways from their industries into what is still a new sphere. This generally means they have a wide and integrated skill set, usually public relations or marketing based, which really adds to their ability to see social media as serious and strategic element of modern business." This concept comes from "business should consider employing a social media specialist to coordinate campaigns." Which talks about the need for these "specialists" in the new progressing business world.

Fab, Tech, and Media Blog

Most companies are known to have set up a Facebook and Twitter accounts and "declare" they are using social media. The purpose of a media specialist to take companies' social media to the next level of declaring new promos, new products, or even getting feedback from the stakeholders and consumers on their companies' image or reputation. Social media specialists also address the issue by taking in value of content already existing in the organization and publishing it in areas that are cost effective but still effective. The blog Fab, Chat, and Media, states the true leverage of social media specialist is to creating a tapestry of conversation between your people and the entire market.


This position is new and the true value of this position has not been realized. This explains why the true understanding and benefits of this position could offer to business and the marketing of this companies. Once the value for this position is realized the demand, the benefits, and the salary of these positions will increase dramatically. The current breakdown of the title can be found in eHow.com's Social Media Specialist page.  


But nothing can describe this position better than someone who is it...

Changed as of March 22, 2012

Twitter and Corporations

The face of public relations and advertising has begun to change as not just individuals have hopped on the stream of social networking, but so have corporations.In the last year, work usage through Facebook was at 39%, while Twitter usage was 700%. These accounts and streams are keeping viewers constantly updated on their products, new developments, and feeding into any craves that viewers have. Because of this new culture of consumerism, the internet content has exploded with new advertising and public relations strategies in hope that the consumer to open their wallets.

Social Media is a Must for Business, BrandReact.com

A recent Washington post article stated that Twitter usage at work jumped 700 percent last year, the recent study found that bandwidth of Twitter did increase inside corporations. Still the study found that 39% of social networking was through Facebook, this study is one of many that finds that these new social media websites are bursting at the seems with new content and users from large corporations looking to always get their message and word out to the masses. The internet has become a source for new branding with hash tags and the ability to track trending on these websites. Many corporations like Walgreens have resorted to buy promoted tweets and created hash tags for its users to use in the possibility to wining prizes or other incentives. This new strategy is spelled out in the RICG article; Ecommerce, Social Becomes Brands' Weapons in Competition Wars. And they aren't alone with companies like Verizon Wireless and Wal-mart following suit. This seems to be the beginning as social media is becoming the advertising for this generation. 

Tim Mohin, director of corporate responsibility for Advanced MicroDevices, agrees that social media gives more than just a new way to get to advertise but a way of connecting with his companies stakeholders.

Now Facebook and Twitter are essential communication tools  for any program. Social media opens a way for stakeholder to interact directly with a company's program. Through social media, companies  gain a following of people who are interest in their performance and can keep tabs on stakeholder sentiment on any emerging issues. These tools are still very new, and no company has perfected their use, but is clear that social media is a game you cannot afford sit out.

The evidence is becoming clearer and clearer as time goes on that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will be the  new way of communicating with consumers, stakeholders, and advertising. If corporations want to stay on top and ahead of their competitors they will have to expand their visions and prepare to make new changes to accommodate with the trends as the tweets continue to roll in and along with the money flow that is behind these social networking phenomena. 

Changed as of March 22, 2012

The World of Blogging

By no means, I am an experienced blogger. But we will give this a shot, it takes more than opinion to make a success blog. It is going to take some trial and error hoping I'll have some success. My goal is to spread some new light into this subject which has becoming so important to the progress and marketing of Fortune 500 companies. The increasing popularity of Twitter and Facebook was started to become the center for communication for more than just social networking between friends. It has become a staple for companies to use these new sources to increase their marketing of products and communicate with its consumers. Through this development, it has created thousands of new jobs for social networking specialists or media specialists. I find this subject so interesting and so important to my possible future career as I hope to do this type of work for a corporate business. I hope you look forward to my posts and my hopefully insightful witty comments. ;)
Have a fabulous day!